Talisman Terry, the Friendly Fracosaurus, has been officially suspended from his duties as an unconventional gas mascot. The cartoon dinosaur was used to narrate Talisman Energy’s company coloring book which described the dangerous process of unconventional gas extraction as safe, clean and patriotic.

Talisman Energy decided to shelve the promotional material after numerous reports criticized the company for engaging in child-directed propaganda. The coloring book, called “Talisman Terry’s Energy Adventures,” portrays gas drilling processes in simplistic and euphoric terms, giving the impression that these controversial drilling techniques, which are connected to numerous instances of air pollution and water contamination, are environmentally beneficial. The 24-page book features images of drilling sites with smiling wildlife and overarching rainbows.

The coloring book has also received some negative response from U.S. Representative Ed Markey, D-Mass. Markey, at a recent Energy and Mineral Resources and Agriculture Joint Subcommittee hearing, referred to Talisman Terry as a “loveable dinosaur” who “playfully promotes the benefits of natural gas and paints a picture of a magical world filled with smiling rocks and grinning animals.” The problem, he says, “is that unless you are a ‘FRACK-A-SAURUS’ named ‘Talisman Terry,’ this world doesn’t exist.”

Indoctrinating kids with propaganda, also referred to as brainwashing, was/is common in totalitarian regimes, usually communist: Soviet Union, East Germany, North Korea etc.

On the right end of the spectrum, the junk-scientific pedophiliacs of the Friends of Science are trying to invade schools.

Froms this history alone, focussing on kids with a topic that is far too complicated for them and also totally irrelevant for a child, is already highly suspicious - and really goofy! Colbert scored an empty netter! while the Talisman goalie was sitting out on drugs.

Colbert is a comedian and entertainer. He found something funny and ran with it. He mocks stupidity. He was not taking himself seriously. Compare that to Trump who thought one of his great jobs was getting the White House to show Obamas birth certificate. Trump took himself, and the inanity of the birther issue, seriously.

If Colbert gets up and talks about how proud he is that he got a colouring book retracted (and he is serious, not joking), then the above comments are warranted. But since he does not take himself seriously (entertainer, remember), neither should you. Perhaps you should tell Colbert it is his job to expose and destroy evil wherever he finds it. Maybe he will mock that on his next program.

So you see the difference? Both took up trivial silly issues. One of them knew it was trivial and silly. The other one took it seriously. If Colbert had done a Trump, then go get him. Skewer the pompous a**. Otherwise…en-ter-tain-er.

Incidentally, I liked it when Obama later said now that he has settled the birther issue, Trump can now focus on other very important issues such as “did man land on the moon?”.

RickJames, where does this blog post take a silly man seriously? It’s not about a silly man, it’s about a silly oil company propagandizing children until the company realized that intelligent people were mocking the silly propagandists.

"Fossil-fuel companies have spent millions funding anti-global-warming think tanks, purposely creating a climate of doubt around the science. DeSmogBlog is the antidote to that obfuscation." ~ BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE